This
new system measures human physiological parameters like heart rate,
respiration, and galvanic skin response through the use of wireless
devices and sensors. Then this information is processed with a
software program, and is ultimately used to control the behavior of
computer-designed characters.

"The
ultimate aim is to develop a method which allows humans to
unconsciously relate with some parts of the virtual environment more
intensely than with others, and that they are encouraged only by
their own physiological responses to the virtual
reality shown," said Christoph Groenegress, researcher
at the University of Barcelona and co-author of the study.

Certain
human physiological parameters direct certain movements and behaviors
in the virtual characters. For instance, respiration causes the
character's chest to rise and fall, heart rate causes movement in the
character's feet and galvanic skin response causes more or less of a
red color on the face.

This
system of recording unconscious processes can be used to help
participants become interested in carrying out certain tasks, such as
patients having to undergo
rehabilitation. Also, this system can be used to tell stories in
settings like video games.

"We
maintain that the linking of subjective corporal states to a virtual
reality can improve the sensation of realism that a person has of
this reality and, eventually, create a stronger link between humans
and this virtual reality," said Groenegress.